CPNCommunity Pharmacy News – February 2016

Joint campaign for community pharmacyPSNC works with the other national pharmacy organisations

on national communications

Reconciling EPS prescriptions | Leadership Academy update | Payment reports portal

PSNC publishes service development proposalsPSNC is working with the other national pharmacy

organisations to prevent the Government plans

from damaging patient care.

PSNC has published a set of service

proposals that describe how community

pharmacy services could develop in the

future within the context of Government

drives for efficiency.

The proposals include the introduction of

a care package, which would see repeat

dispensing becoming a default option

where medicines are needed on a long-

term basis, patient registration at

pharmacies, and pharmacies offering

enhanced medicines optimisation services.

The document comes as part of the

discussions with the NHS following the

17th December open letter in which the

Government announced a number of plans

for community pharmacy including a

£170m reduction in funding. The

Government highlighted the need for

efficiencies but also stated that it wanted

to develop a clinically focussed community

pharmacy service.

The Department of Health (DH) and NHS

England have no specific proposals on how

to develop that clinically focussed

community pharmacy service, so they

invited PSNC to propose service

development options for discussion.

The proposals offer a possible way to

develop the pharmacy service in order to

meet the NHS and Government's stated

aims for patient care, and PSNC will

undertake further development work on

them subject to the response they receive

from DH and NHS England.

The proposals are set out in three phases,

in recognition of the need to allow the

wider NHS and community pharmacy to

adopt them in a controlled manner that

also allows time for other enablers, such as

IT, to be put in place. The box opposite

summarises the first phase of PSNC’s

proposals; the full proposals can be

viewed on our campaign page:

psnc.org.uk/campaign

We recognise that implementing these

service development proposals would

have substantial implications for DH's

planned restructuring of funding delivery

and this would require detailed

consideration.

2 Community Pharmacy News – February 2016

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Proposals: Phase 1a) Transfer from Repeat Prescribing

to eRepeat Dispensing (eRD) and

develop a community pharmacy

care package for patients.

b) Offer of an inhaler technique

check and coaching session to

patients prescribed inhalers.

c) Prescription interventions to be

clearly recorded using a standard

classification system and the data

to be centrally collated.

d) Post-discharge Medicines Use

Reviews (MURs) to continue.

e) To effectively implement a Minor

Ailments Advice Service and an

Emergency Supply Service.

f) Public Health England (PHE) and

NHS England should agree up to

six national campaign topics each

year, running within pharmacies for

up to two months.

The campaignPSNC and the other national pharmacy organisations have

begun the coordinated campaign on the future of community

pharmacy. Tactics include sending Parliamentary briefings and

meeting with MPs, as well as media work.

Everyone can help in the following ways.

• Follow us online and on social media. Please visit the

dedicated website at: supportyourlocalpharmacy.org and

look out for #lovemypharmacy updates on Twitter.

• Share your stories – you can use #lovemypharmacy to share

stories of how you and your pharmacy team have gone out of

your way to help your patients.

• Collect case studies that demonstrate where you have

offered exceptional care to patients. These can be emailed to

campaign@psnc.org.uk. See the guidance at:

psnc.org.uk/campaign.

• Sign up to the e-petition at:

tinyurl.com/supportyourlocalpharmacy and then commit to

getting your patients to sign the paper petition coming soon.

• Talk to patients – tell them about the campaign and ask for

their support, for instance through the petition, social media,

or by contacting their MP. Read the guidance at:

psnc.org.uk/campaign for more help and information.

• Contact your MP – write a personalised letter to your MP

setting out your concerns. The key messages at:

psnc.org.uk/campaign will help you with this.

Within days of the 17th December announcement PSNC had

called a special meeting of LPC Chairs and Chief Officers. The

meeting held on 20th January had representatives from 75 LPCs

to get the latest information from PSNC, hear about national

plans and work together to discuss how LPCs can play their part.

PSNC Chief Executive Sue Sharpe identified the specific threat to

community pharmacy, the government’s aims and objectives,

PSNC’s position on specific elements of the Government’s plans,

PSNC’s strategy, and the campaign to win hearts and minds.

Sue emphasised that this was not a short campaign – it was for at

least two years and the impact on patients is the main concern.

NPA Chair Ian Strachan spoke passionately and personally about

his disbelief on first hearing about the plans and his commitment

to work collaboratively

with other national bodies

to fight the proposals to

protect the services

patients need and value.

LPCs agreed that working

together with the national

organisations on a coordinated campaign was vital. Through

group discussions they identified how locally LPCs can lobby MPs,

use social media, collect patient stories on the value of their

contractors' pharmacies, organise local meetings and engage

patients and customers in the pharmacy in high impact ways.

Some of those suggestions are now built into the campaign and

LPCs side by side with the pharmacy bodies are gearing up to

fight the threats to community pharmacy and patients.

psnc.org.uk 3

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PSNC Leadership Academy updateThere was a great response to the invitation to apply to be

part of PSNC’s leadership development programme for

LPCs, designed to develop leaders for the future.

We received applications from numerous excellent candidates, more than

double the number of places available, which made the selection process all

the more difficult.

Congratulations to all the successful candidates; we will track the

development of the group and keep LPCs updated with news of their

progress.

The successful candidates, and their LPCs, are:

1. Andrew Beardshall – Barnsley

2. Sarah Wood – Bury & Rochdale

3. Nicholas Thayer – Cheshire & Wirral

4. Tom Kallis – Devon

5. Penny Woodgate – East Sussex

6. Altaf Vaiya – Leicestershire & Rutland

7. David Sanchez – Liverpool

8. Claire Dickens – Manchester

9. Lauren Seamons – Norfolk

10. Stephen Blackman – North of Tyne

11. Elissa Pateman – North Staffordshire & Stoke

12. Sandie Hall – Tees

LPC leaders discuss Government proposalsPSNC last month hosted a meeting of LPC Chairs and Chief Officers to

discuss its response to the Government plans.

A number of details have emerged in recent weeks about the Government’s plans for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond;

here's a round-up of the additional details that have now emerged:

• A Department of Health presentation/briefing document providing further information on their proposals;

• PSNC has stated it cannot accept proposals that will jeopardise the services and supplies that pharmacies provide to their patients;

• At a meeting with the All-Party Pharmacy Group, pharmacy minister Alistair Burt suggested that between 1,000 and 3,000

community pharmacies could close; and

• The Government responded to an online petition seeking to stop the community pharmacy funding reduction for 2016/17, restating

its belief that efficiencies can be made in the sector.

Community pharmacy contractors and LPCs may want to read these documents in full to ensure they are fully informed of the current

situation. Links to the documents and further information are available from: psnc.org.uk/campaign

Further details emerge on Government plans for pharmacy

4 Community Pharmacy News – February 2016

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PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has recently undertaken an independent study, commissioned by government, to assess the costs and

benefits of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).

The study, which began in late January, involved PwC visiting a sample of community pharmacies from across the country in order to

assess the impact of using EPS compared to paper prescriptions.

Following the agreement in the 2015/16 community pharmacy funding settlement for this work to be undertaken, PwC was selected

to obtain and use independent evidence to assess the benefits and dis-benefits of using EPS to community pharmacies, in particular

the difference in time, costs and workload required for handling electronic compared to paper prescriptions.

Pharmacies were selected to take part in the work in order to reflect the range of pharmacy types (e.g. locations, script volumes and

ownership type), extent of use of EPS and the range of Patient Medication Record (PMR) systems in use across England.

The views and experiences of other community pharmacy teams were also canvassed through an online survey held earlier this month.

EPS costing studyAn independent study of EPS, involving

200 randomly selected community

pharmacy teams, has taken place to

assess the impact of the Electronic

Prescription Service on contractors.

To help pharmacy teams get the most out of EPS, over 800 training

events are being held throughout England with at least one event

per PMR system in each LPC area taking place before June 2016.

The events are being organised by the EPS Team at the Health and

Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), in conjunction with LPCs,

dispensing system suppliers and the Pricing Authority (PA).

The free training will focus on:

1. dispensing system training, tailored specifically to your PMR

system, covering how to use EPS Release 2;

2. business process change and how to get the best out of EPS,

including business continuity; and

3. a claiming and endorsing masterclass by the PA.

Where possible the whole pharmacy team should attend the

events to ensure they can get the most out of EPS, understand

their PMR capability, and are prepared for the future development

of EPS. Pharmacy teams should consider how to further optimise

their processes following their session and attendance can count

towards Continuing Professional Development.

James Wood, pharmacist at Wicker Pharmacy, commented:

“The events are a good way to ensure the whole pharmacy team can

get to know their PMR and maximise their use of EPS. They’ll provide

a great introduction for those who haven’t used EPS very much to

date, and staff will be able to raise their questions.”

Most pharmacy teams will be able to find events in their area

because more than 75% of the planned events are now listed on

the HSCIC website. Sign up for events at: tinyurl.com/traineps or

read more at: psnc.org.uk/epstraining

Don't miss out on the free EPS masterclasses in your area this year!

7- minimumevents perLPC area

2 hours- length of

eachevent

3- number of sessionsat eachevent

over800- number of

events acrossthe country

IG toolkit reminderIt’s just over a month to go before the deadline to submit Information Governance (IG) returns (31st March 2016). Don’t forget

pharmacies are no longer exempt from requirement 319 and therefore contractors need to have a business continuity plan in

place. Guidance on developing a plan can be found in the clinical governance section of the PSNC website: psnc.org.uk/IG319

psnc.org.uk 5

lpcs psnc’s work funDing anD statisticshe healthcare lanDscape

Want to reconcile your EPS prescription figures?Try using our handy nine step process!PSNC recommends contractors use the steps below to help reconcile the

number of electronic prescriptions sent by their pharmacy with the

amount paid by the Pricing Authority (PA).

1. Consider the five day window

when counting EPS totals:

E.g. Prescriptions with dispense

messages sent in August (1st-31st) are

included in the August dispensing

month only if the claim messages are

sent by the end of 5th September.

If both the dispense message and the

claim message are sent within the first

five days of September, these will be

included in the September dispensing

month as shown in this example.

2. Send EPS dispense and claim messages at the

right time:

Consider (a) sending all dispense and claim messages

by the end of the month and (b) not sending claim

messages between 1st-5th of the next month, given

five day window logic, if this can ease your counting.

3. View PMr monthly totals

report:

This can help with completing the

FP34C submission form as the PMR

report may summarise and break

down your EPS totals for the month.

4. Complete

FP34C form:

Tick the EPS box,

and enter the

totals into the

boxes provided i.e.

paper plus

electronic overall

forms and items.5. Manually note EPS totals onto top of FP34C form:

See image below. This will help in reconciling with your FP34 Schedule of Payment.

6. Take a copy and then send

the FP34C form:

Send it via a track and trace

method with your

prescriptions, by the 5th of the

month following dispensing.

7. Compare EPS totals on the FP34C form

copy to EPS totals listed on the Schedule

of Payment as soon as you can*:

The totals are in the PRESCRIPTION DATA

section typically found on page 2 or 3 – see

image above.

8. Spotting a discrepancy:

Small differences, like that seen

above, are common and usually

caused by: the five day logic (see step

1); suppliers’ totals reports requiring

refining; methadone instalments;

elastic hosiery items; or multiple

strengths/flavours.

9. Still worried?

If you are still concerned you may want to ask the PA to re-count

the forms/items in the prescription bundle via the recheck form

(psnc.org.uk/epsreconcile).

August September

28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6

August September

28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6

August September

28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6

Dispense notificationsent on 29th August

Electronic claim message receivedbefore midnight on 5th September

= August Payment

Dispense notificationsent on 1st September

Electronic claim message receivedbefore midnight on 5th September

= September Payment

Dispense notificationsent on 29th August

Electronic claim message receivedafter midnight on 5th September

= September Payment

PrESCriPTioN DATA

Total forms received (including electronic prescription) 3,391

Total electronic prescription forms received 1,587

Total electronic prescription items received 3,502

*EPS items are removed from the spine six monthsafter the dispense claim has been sent soreconciliation must be completed as soon as possible.

PSNC has been lobbying the Department of Health for many years for community pharmacy contractors to have full transparency of

their payments from the NHS. Work commenced in 2012 on a joint programme between PSNC and NHS Business Services Authority

(NHSBSA) to deliver this transparency over three phases (see tinyurl.com/nhsbsa-isp for details of Phase III).

Phase I delivered the introduction of NHSBSA’s Information Services Portal (ISP) in 2015 (to access the ISP go to:

tinyurl.com/NHSBSAportal), which gives all registered users access to their FP34 Schedules of Payment.

Phase II sees the delivery of a new detailed prescription item payment report that has been made available to all contractors who

have registered for the ISP. This report allows contractors for the first time, to see a full breakdown of every payment made to their

business, at individual prescription item level. See below for a mock-up of the new report. (Please note that this report is just an

extract using fictitious data, some columns have been removed and the data contained may not be wholly accurate.)

6 Community Pharmacy News – February 2016

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New payment transparency reportsCommunity pharmacy contractors registered with the NHSBSA’s Information

Services Portal can now access detailed prescription payment reports.

OCSCode

DispensingMonth

FormNumber

ItemNumber

ElementId

PrescriberCode

ChargesPayable Product Description

SnomedCode Quantity

Unit OfMeasure

PackPrice Pack Size

BasicPrice*

Payment forConsumables

PaymentforContainers* NB ZD LB

UnlicensedMeds FeeValue*

ExpensiveItem FeeValue*

DispensingUID

NHSPatientNumber

201509 1132 2 1 944380 0 NovoRapid Penfill 10 SC-32794 25 cartridge 28.31 5 141.55 0.0124 0 ZD 0 2.83

201509 1134 1 1 930740 0 Tramadol 100mg mo SC-10403 84 capsule 14.47 60 28.94 0.0124 0.1 NB ZD 0 0

201509 1143 1 1 337804 0 Renvela 800mg table SC-18291 180 tablet 167.04 180 167.04 0.0124 0 ZD 0 3.34

201509 1146 1 1 923553 0 Benzoyl peroxide 5% SC-93422 1 gram 21.89 50 21.89 0.0124 0 ZD 0 0

201509 1150 2 1 871613 0 Tramadol 50mg caps SC-10531 200 capsule 4 100 8 0.0124 0 ZD 0 0

201509 1150 3 1 871613 0 Buprenorphine 70mi SC-10367 26 patch 31.6 4 205.4 0.0124 0.1 ZD 0 4.11

201509 1151 2 1 871613 0 Hibiscrub 4% solution SC-34025 500 ml 5.25 500 5.25 0.0124 0 ZD 0 0

201509 1152 1 1 920962 0 Metolazone 2.5mg ta SC-24502 8 tablet 0 1 7.54 0.0124 0 ZD LB 20 0

201509 1160 2 1 871613 0 Humulin S 100units/ SC-33114 15 cartridge 19.08 5 57.24 0.0124 0 ZD 0 0

201509 1160 3 1 871913 0 Lantus 100units/ml s SC-32845 15 cartridge 41.5 5 124.5 0.0124 0 ZD 0 2.49

Contractors will be able to reconcile the values on their payment

schedules with those on the new item payment report to a certain

degree, but there will be some manipulation required in order to

do this. There is a variety of supporting documentation available

to help assist contractors and any feedback on these documents

should be made to psnc@psnc.org.uk

Whilst the new item payment report will offer a level of better

transparency, PSNC will continue to work with NHSBSA to ensure

that contractors are given more meaningful transparency through

access to prescription images, which will help reconcile any

individual payment back to the pharmacy’s internal records.

If you have not yet registered for access to the ISP please go to:

tinyurl.com/NHSBSAportal

For more information regarding the portal please contact NHSBSA

by calling 0191 203 5050 or emailing nhsbsa.help@nhs.net

* The totals of these columns should equal the figures found on the FP34 Schedule of Payment.

This is the form numberthat has been printedonto the prescription bythe Pricing Authority

Information relatingto the charge statusof the item (and howit was submitted)

This is the uniquecode of the productthat has beenreimbursed.

LB denotes the £20 sourcingfee for specials and the nextcolumn gives the total valueof £20 fees paid

Shows whichproducts were paid10p payment forcontainers

Unique itemlevel identifierfor EPSprescriptions

Each report will detail theOCS code and dispensingmonth relating to theinformation.

This is the order of whichthe item appeared onthe prescription

Details relating to the prescribercan help reconcile informationback to your PMR system

Product information giving the total quantitypaid, the pack size used for reimbursementand the final basic price paid.

Products which are zerodiscounted (i.e. discountis not deducted)

All items that havebeen paid anexpensive item fee

Partially redacted NHS numbercan help with reconciling backto your PMR records.

Primary Care Support England (PCSE) is currently developing a new online portal through which all community pharmacy

teams in England will be able to order NHS stationery.

The portal will initially provide a quick and easy way for ordering and tracking supplies including pre-printed forms,

Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) tokens and other NHS stationery. The portal will replace the channels pharmacy teams

currently use to order supplies from PCSE.

At the time of writing, PCSE will shortly invite all pharmacies in England to pre-register (with full details of how to do so) for

the portal with the aim of it being available to all English pharmacies from 29th March 2016. Further information is available

from: psnc.org.uk/marketentry, but if pharmacy teams have further queries about registering on the portal, or about the new

process, please get in touch with PCSE by emailing PCSE.enquiries@nhs.net

Primary care support services online portal coming soon

psnc.org.uk 7

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How to pass the CSfPP assessment

“We know that developing the necessary skills to communicate with patients

clearly and effectively can help to improve patient outcomes, and empower them

to manage their own health and wellbeing. This is why we have released support

materials for the CSfPP assessment.

The materials were provided in a four-week breakdown to correspond with the

four sections of the assessment, providing a range of hints and tips for

pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The support concluded with a #CSACselfie

day when successful participants posted photos with their pass certificates on

social media. We also saw the pass percentage rate of each section, and the

overall assessment, increase across the board during the month.

The assessment is a core competency of the Declaration of Competence system

which must be completed by pharmacists who wish to carry out various locally

commissioned services and the Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Advanced Service.

For anyone who missed the weekly support, we have published a unified version

of our support videos which can be viewed at: vimeo.com/130327306. To access

and complete the assessment, go to: tinyurl.com/j3pvmgy.”

The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) last month released support materials to help

pharmacy professionals complete their Consultation Skills for Pharmacy Practice (CSfPP) assessment.

Latest support fromCPPEA new consultation skills resource

has been sent out to all community

pharmacies in England this month. The

resource consists of a set of learning

cards, each covering a separate topic with

key learning points, top tips and links to

videos. Find out more at: dld.bz/embJX

Consulting with people living with

dementia aims to help learners

successfully involve people with

dementia and their family members

and/or carers in consultations and

decisions about their treatment.

Find out more at: dld.bz/ekb8f

Don’t forget to submit your flu vaccination claimsThe national community pharmacy flu vaccination service 2015/16 finishes on the 29th February 2016; community pharmacy

contractors are therefore reminded of the need to submit payment claims for those vaccinations administered during February

with their prescription bundle at the beginning of March.

The Service Specification for the seasonal influenza vaccination service states:

“Payment claims for those vaccinations administered during February must be submitted to the NHS BSA by the 5th of

March in line with the FP34C process.”

Failure to comply may result in contractors not being paid for vaccinations administered during February.

Services news

50%of users would have gone without their medicine if itweren’t for a pharmacy emergency supply service

9.4%of eligible patients in a community pharmacy pilotshowed a positive test result for coeliac disease

Early detection of coeliac disease project

The results of a community pharmacy project, focussed on the early

detection of people with undiagnosed coeliac disease, show that

9.4% of eligible patients who took part had a positive test result for

coeliac disease and 7.2% tested positive for IgA deficiency.

Patient feedback from the project, commissioned by Coeliac UK

and published by the National Association of Primary Care, also

indicated that community pharmacies were the ideal place for

this type of service to be offered. To read the results in full,

please visit: dld.bz/ekb8A

Emergency supply evaluation published

An NHS funded community pharmacy emergency repeat

medication supply service (PERMSS) evaluation discovered that, in

the absence of this service, 50% of patients would have missed

their medicines until they saw their GP whilst a further 46% of

patients would have accessed another out of hours service.

The evaluation, published by British Medical Journal Open, agrees

with recent calls for emergency supplies to be provided by

community pharmacies in order to reduce the burden on the wider

NHS. To read the evaluation in full, please visit: dld.bz/ekwM3

8 Community Pharmacy News – February 2016

the healthcare lanDscape lpcs psnc’s work

News• The Department of Health (DH) has launched a public

consultation to seek views on proposed recommendations to

limit the consumption of alcohol to minimise health-related risks.

• The Care Quality Commission has appointed Dame Eileen Smith

as the country’s first national guardian to support healthcare

staff in speaking out about concerns over patient safety.

• The Prime Minister has announced almost a billion pounds of

investment to enhance mental health services across the country.

• NHS England is aiming to widen the personal health budgets

scheme to more patients with complex needs and multiple long-

term conditions by 2020.

innovation• A trial conducted by Imperial College, DH and Barts NHS Trust has

shown that text messages informing the patient about the

specific waste to the NHS of not attending reduced missed

appointments by 23% compared to the standard message.

• Newham’s diabetes webcam appointments scheme has saved

approximately £27 in clinician time per consultant appointment

and, overall, it showed better health outcomes and a reduction in

A&E admissions for young people with diabetes.

• Simon Stevens has launched the first wave of Innovation Test

Beds which will involve the NHS collaborating with innovators

such as Verily, Philips and IBM to utilise technology to address

complex issue facing patients and the health service.

resources• DH has issued guidance which sets out how the Better Care Fund

(BCF) will be implemented in 2016/17.

• A series of hypertension profiles and a new dementia profile have

been launched by Public Health England (PHE) enabling

comparisons between local authorities and CCGs.

• NICE has published a quality standard, Obesity in adults:

prevention and lifestyle weight management programmes, covering

ways of preventing adults from becoming overweight or obese

and the provision of lifestyle weight management programmes.

Evaluations and statistics• The first major evaluation of the NHS Health Check service found

that the checks identified 7,844 new cases of high blood pressure

(1 new case in every 27 checks), but the study didn’t distinguish

between those conducted in GP practices and community

pharmacies.

• The latest PHE figures on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

(COPD) show that more than one million people are living with

COPD.

• PHE’s evaluation of the shingles vaccination programme indicates

that uptake of the vaccine was down by almost 3% on the

previous year.

• The National Diabetes Audit (NDA) 2014-2015 highlighted that

those aged under 40 were less likely to receive all eight care

processes recommended by NICE, ranging from 24.8% to 80.6%

across CCGs and Local Health Boards.

Last month, the UCL School of Pharmacy held their New Year

lecture on Pathways to Neurodegeneration, focusing on the search

for Alzheimer’s Disease treatments.

The evening lecture was given by Professor John Hardy of the UCL

Institute of Neurology who recently won the Breakthrough Prize in

Life Sciences for his research into neurodegenerative conditions.

A press conference was held earlier in the day to explore some of

the key issues with relevant stakeholders in primary care, including

representatives from PSNC, Pharmacy Voice and the Royal

Pharmaceutical Society.

During the conference, Professor David Colin-Thomé, former

national clinical director for primary care, discussed his recent

publication Primary Care in the Twenty First Century which explores

the need for and provision of good quality health and social care

for people affected by conditions such as dementia.

Professor Colin-Thomé stated, “In future community pharmacists

may, in addition to winning extended roles in early stage dementia

detection and personal care, also play more useful parts in the

delivery of preventive care via enabling more people to adopt

healthy lifestyles and use medicines to best effect in contexts such

as vascular disease prevention.”

Primary care and neurodegenerative conditions

1 in 27 NHS HealthChecks identify a new

case of high bloodpressure

Almost £1bn to beinvested in mental

health services

Webcam appointments for diabetes patients save

approximately £27 inclinician time

PSNC regularly receives questions from LPCs and pharmacy

contractors about what is going on in the wider health and care

landscape beyond community pharmacy. For a more

comprehensive round-up, please visit: psnc.org.uk/hclbriefings

psnc.org.uk 9

contract anD it Dispensing anD supply services anD commissioningfunDing anD statistics

In this section of Community Pharmacy News we have highlighted some keynotices for you and your team to be aware of in the coming weeks and months.

Pharmacy notice board

New diabetes e-learning toolA new online learning tool has been launched by theNational Institute for Health and Care Excellence(NICE) to help healthcare professionals understandhow to support adults with type 1 diabetes.The free tool has interactive features and casestudies to help learners implement their knowledgeof NICE guidelines and is aimed at healthcareprofessionals across primary and secondarycare as well as service commissioners for type 1diabetes.Find out more about what support the tool canoffer at: dld.bz/ehxWf

Research fundingavailable to pharmacists

Pharmacy Research UK is callingfor funding applications frompharmacists who wish to developtheir skills and experience in research.The funding is aimed at researchers who arenovices and at an early stage in their career.The deadline for applications is 4th May 2016.Further information, including details of how toapply, are available from: dld.bz/eg7dc

Which GP practice do your prescriptions come from? ...How are you doing withEPS nominations? ...How many flu jabs have you been paid for this winter so far?

Find out with THREE NEW KPIs at: www.check34.com

Understand your NHS business better with Check34Not yet got an account? Email check34admin@psnc.org.uk for more information.

Pharmacy Show 2015 presentations availableRecordings and slides from all the presentations made during Pharmacy Show 2015 have now beenmade available online at: tinyurl.com/pharmacyshow15

PSNC supported the Local Pharmacy Innovation Theatre with ChristineBurbage, Chair of PSNC’s LPC and Implementation Support Subcommittee,chairing the theatre on the first day and Director of NHS Services AlastairBuxton on the second day.

A number of LPC Chief Officers and LPC members presented on locallycommissioned services over the two days; the recordings and slides of theseare available under the ‘Local Pharmacy Innovation Theatre’ section (whenprompted the password is pharmacy15).

DH permits use of antiviral medicines against influenzaDue to an increase in flu virus activity, the Department of Health (DH) has issued a letteradvising that GPs and other prescribers working in primary care in England may nowprescribe antiviral medicines for the prophylaxis and treatment of influenza at NHS expense.

Community pharmacy teams are reminded that prescriptions for these products must beendorsed ‘SLS’ by the prescriber. If the SLS endorsement is missing, the prescriptionshould not be dispensed and will not be passed for payment. Find out more, and read theletter in full, at: dld.bz/egGDC

All details correct at time of printing.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of PSNC.

Produced for PSNC by Communications International Group. ©. PSNC.

Colour repro and printing by Truprint Media, Margate.

The publishers accept no responsibility for any statement made in signed contributions or

in those reproduced from any other source.

Communications International Group

Linen Hall, 162-168 Regent Street, London W1B 5TB

Tel: 020 7434 1530 Fax: 020 7437 0915

Distributedfor PSNC by:

10 Community Pharmacy News – February 2016

Dispensing anD supply services anD commissioning the healthcare lanDscape lpcs

Hydroquinone 4% Cream

The Department of Health has confirmed that there was an incorrect listing in Part VIIIA for Hydroquinone 4% cream 1g in the

December 2015, January and February 2016 Drug Tariffs.

Hydroquinone 4% cream 30g is correctly listed in Part VIIIB under ‘Arrangements for payment for specials and imported unlicensed

medicines’. The Pricing Authority has confirmed that the listing of this product has not affected reimbursement; prescriptions for

Hydroquinone 4% cream have been and will continue to be reimbursed under the Part VIIIB arrangements.

Mesalazine 400mg Gr tablets

In the February 2016 Drug Tariff, changes were made to the Mesalazine 400mg gastro-resistant tablets listing in Part VIIIA.

There are now two listings for Mesalazine 400mg gastro-resistant tablets:

• Reimbursement for the pack size of 90 tablets is now based on Octasa 400mg MR gastro-resistant tablets; and

• A pack size of 84, with reimbursement based on Asacol 400mg MR gastro-resistant tablets, has been added.

For Part VIIIA Category C products where there are multiple pack sizes listed, endorsement of the pack size is needed to ensure correct

reimbursement.

Find out more about these Drug Tariff changes at: dld.bz/ekyA8

Drug Tariff news: Hydroquinone and MesalazineChanges to the Drug Tariff impact on

reimbursement so it is important for community

pharmacy teams to take note when

amendments are made to product listings.

The Pricing Authority produces a quarterly newsletter called

Hints & Tips for dispensing contractors.

We would like to draw your attention to the latest edition (Issue

22) which contains some really useful information and advice

regarding:

• Free EPS masterclass training;

• Guidance on endorsing your FP10MDA forms correctly;

• Transparency of payment information; and

• How to endorse a brand and/or pack size in EPS Release 2.

All published editions of the Hints & Tips newsletter can be

found on the the Pricing Authority’s website:

www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/3191.aspx

Pharmacy teams who experience problems in obtaining

medicines (generic or branded) or appliances are reminded to

feed this back to our Dispensing and Supply Team, to support

PSNC’s ongoing representation of issues in the supply chain.

PSNC passes a monthly summary of the feedback received to

the Department of Health to support their monitoring of the

situation. This information is also used as an evidence base in

discussions with manufacturers on manufacturer-specific

problems, for example, highlighting problems with

contingency arrangements and promoting solutions.

Please make sure you let us know about any supply issues by

using our online feedback forms at psnc.org.uk/feedback

NHSBSA’s Hints & Tips Experiencing supply issues?

EPS prescription process changes go liveAs highlighted on page 4 of January’s CPN, changes to EPS repeat dispensing timing logic and prescriber cancellation are due to

take place this month. As this edition of CPN went to press, these changes were given a go-live date of Thursday 18th February.

The most up-to-date information on these changes can be found at: dld.bz/ekwPz

psnc.org.uk 11

psnc’s work funDing anD statistics contract anD itlpcs

Ask PSNCThe PSNC Dispensing and Supply Team give pharmacy teams support and

advice on a range of topics related to the Drug Tariff and reimbursement.

Questions asked in recent months have included:

1. I have been presented with a prescription for a generic

product but there is no generic available, only the brand. I have

asked the prescriber if they would be prepared to reissue the

prescription for the branded product instead but they have

refused. Do I have to dispense the brand?

Yes, the current Terms of Service require community pharmacy

contractors to dispense drugs with “reasonable promptness”

(Terms of Service, paragraph 5) therefore, supply cannot be

withheld on cost grounds.

However, where you become aware that a generic is not available

to purchase or is not available at the Drug Tariff price, it is

essential that you inform PSNC via the online feedback form on

our website (psnc.org.uk/feedback). Information received from

pharmacies helps feed into our market surveillance and

subsequent discussions on Drug Tariff changes with the

Department of Health (DH). It is imperative that PSNC is kept

informed about such pricing anomalies, so that we can act to

secure fair reimbursement for contractors.

Updates on price concessions will be shown on our website at:

psnc.org.uk/generic-shortages

2. Why aren’t price concessions granted on the first day of each

month?

If there is an on-going supply problem, PSNC needs to make a

fresh concession application at the start of every month. DH then

take time to undertake checks and make a decision. In some

cases, there is a need for negotiation between PSNC and DH on

an individual product’s circumstances. This can take time. PSNC

would like to see changes to the arrangements that would allow

contractors to have certainty over what they will be reimbursed

much earlier in the month, a point which we have raised with DH.

Look out for more frequently asked questions next month…

If you would like more information on any of the topics covered,

the PSNC Dispensing and Supply Team will be happy to help

(0844 381 4180 or 0203 1220 810 or e-mail info@psnc.org.uk).

When pharmacy teams receive NHS prescriptions, they must check whether the items prescribed are allowed on the NHS before dispensing. If theyare not allowed, the contractor may not be paid for them.

Pharmacy teams may wish to check PSNC’s ‘Dispensing on an FP10 database’ (available at: psnc.org.uk/FP10database) for more information onwhether an item can be dispensed on an FP10. Below is a list of some products that we have recently received queries about.

Product Is the item Does it Is it Can it be Additional listed in the have a ‘CE’ in the dispensed information Drug Tariff? mark? blacklist? on an FP10?

Please note: If the prescription is one of the following, pharmacy staff will need to check the relevant sections of the Drug Tariff/PSNC website:

• FP10CN or FP10PN (community nurse prescriber) – Part XVIIB of the Drug Tariff

• FP10D (dental prescriber) – Part XVIIA of the Drug Tariff

• FP10MDA (instalment dispensing) – psnc.org.uk/mda

Can it be dispensed on an FP10?

Flivasorb Adhesive dressing15cm x 25cm rectangular

Ilex skin protectant pasteIP51

OpSite film spray dressing100 ml

MGDRx EyeBag

Sidestream disposablenebuliser with adult maskand tubing

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

This item is a medical device (CE marked) andappears in Part IX of the Drug Tariff.

This item is a medical device (CE marked) andappears in Part IX of the Drug Tariff.

This item is a medical device (CE marked) and is notlisted in Part IX of the Drug Tariff.

This item is a medical device (CE marked) andappears in Part IX of the Drug Tariff.

This item is a medical device (CE marked) and is notlisted in Part IX of the Drug Tariff.

Dispensing anD supply services anD commissioning the healthcare lanDscape

PSNC websiteFor up to date information and news on community pharmacy issues, visit the PSNC website at psnc.org.uk

PSNC Community Pharmacy News is published by:The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, Times House, 5 Bravingtons Walk, London N1 9AWCommunity Pharmacy News is edited by:Melinda Mabbutt who can be contacted at the above address or by email at: mmabbutt@psnc.org.uk © PSNCPSNC Office: 0844 381 4180 or 0203 122 0810

Drug Tariff WatchThe Preface lists additions, deletions and alterations to the Drug Tariff. Below is a quick

summary of the changes due to take place from 1st March 2016. You may also wish to see

our Dispensing Factsheet: The Drug Tariff Preface at psnc.org.uk/dtresources

Part ViiiA additions

SC Special Container

Category A Additions:

• Dihydrocodeine 10mg/5ml oral solution (150ml)

• Isocarboxazid 10mg tablets (56)

• Procyclidine 10mg/2ml solution for injection ampoules (5)

Category C Additions:

• Aclidinium bromide 375micrograms/dose dry powder Inhaler

SC (60 dose) – Eklira

• Adapalene 0.1% / Benzoyl peroxide 2.5% gel SC (45g) – Epiduo

• Alendronic acid 70mg effervescent tablets sugar free SC (4) –

Binosto

• Alogliptin 12.5mg tablets (28) – Vipidia

• Alogliptin 25mg tablets (28) – Vipidia

• Alogliptin 6.25mg tablets (28) – Vipidia

• Alogliptin 12.5mg / Metformin 1g tablets (56) – Vipdomet

• Aminophylline hydrate 225mg modified-release tablets (56) –

Phyllocontin Continus

• Aminophylline hydrate 350mg modified-release tablets (56) –

Phyllocontin Forte Continus

• Atenolol 50mg / Nifedipine 20mg modified-release capsules

(28) – Tenif

• Coal tar extract 5% shampoo SC (250ml) – Alphosyl 2 in 1

• Colecalciferol 10,000units/ml oral solution sugar free SC

(2.5ml) – Thorens

• Colecalciferol 10,000units/ml oral solution sugar free (10ml

(4xSC2.5ml)) – Thorens

• Colecalciferol 10,000units/ml oral drops sugar free SC (10ml) –

Thorens

• Colecalciferol 50,000units/1ml oral solution unit dose

ampoules sugar free (3) – InVita D3

• Diclofenac 2.32% gel SC (30g, 50g & 100g) – Voltarol 12 Hour

Emulgel P

• Dronedarone 400mg tablets (20) – Multaq

• Granisetron 2mg tablets (5) – Kytril

• Magnesium hydroxide 415mg/5ml oral suspension sugar free

(200ml) – Phillips' Milk of Magnesia

• Solifenacin 6mg / Tamsulosin 400microgram modified-release

Tablets (30) – Vesomni

• Urea hydrogen peroxide 5% ear drops SC (8ml) – Otex

Part ViiiA deletions

If a medicinal product has been removed from Part VIIIA and has

no other pack sizes listed, it can continue to be dispensed, but it

will need to be endorsed fully (i.e. brand or supplier name, pack

size and price paid) in future.

• Co-danthrusate 50mg/60mg/5ml oral suspension sugar free

(200ml) – Normax

• Erythromycin 2% solution (50ml) – Stiemycin

• Orphenadrine 50mg tablets (250) – Disipal

• Rimexolone 10mg/ml eye drops (5ml) – Vexol

• Salbutamol 95micrograms/dose dry powder inhaler (200

dose) – Asmasal Clickhaler

• Salbutamol 200micrograms/dose dry powder inhaler (100

dose) – Pulvinal Salbutamol

Part iX deletions

It is important to take careful note of removals from Part IX because if you dispense a deleted product, prescriptions will be returned

as disallowed and therefore payment will not be made for dispensing the item.

Product name and description Sizes affected

Hollister InstantCath Protect (Nélaton Intermittent Catheter with introducer tip and urine bag) 10 Ch (9692) and 16 Ch (9695)

Vacuskin (Vapour-permeable Adhesive Film Dressing) 6cm x 7cm, 10cm x 12cm, 10cm x25cm, and 15cm x 20cm

TS-A Safety insulin syringe (Minsmed) 1ml (0.33mm/29G)

Sigvaris Coton (20-36mmHg), Below Knee Closed Toe Female Long and Normal in S, M, L, and XL

Sigvaris Coton (20-36mmHg), Thigh High Hold Up Closed Toe Female Long and Normal in S, M, L, and XL

Ring pessary, Polythene, Specification 20 (ii) 7.5mm thick, 110mm diameter

Filmated Gauze Swab BP 1988 Non Sterile (Gauze Type 13 Light BP 1988 8-ply) 10cm x 10cm